Our Baptism is not just a feel good call of affirmation. It is a call to servanthood with God to bring the message that all of life is called blessed. As servants, as we deeply hear this affirmation for our lives, we then begin to see other people through the same lens and are called to remind them of their value in God’s eyes.
Be anchored in the affirmation that you are the beloved child of God. It is the inheritance of your baptism. Once we start from that place and continue to believe that nothing and no one can take that identity away from us, then we are free to explore what God has in mind for our lives.
Parker Palmer, who I read years ago, has written a wonderful small book, called “Let your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation”. He writes, “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.” He suggests we ask the question, “Is the life I’m living, the life that wants to live in me?”
The powerful call of our baptism is to live with the integrity of the life that God has given us, to and then, to shape each day of that life. As we value our life as beloved and affirmed, we begin to manifest God’s Spirit working through us and then we can then hear the call to value all life as beloved of God. Living into that reality will bless the world with a deep righteousness, pursuit of justice, and offer profound respect for all of God’s creation.
You are the beloved children of God. Watermarked and spirit-born. Go out and live in joy children of God.
